What is a written language disorder?:
A written language disorder is one that involves significant impairment or difficulty across written language, including reading and writing comprehension, word recognition, and ability.
About written language disorders:
Written language disorders can occur alongside another language disorder, or may be in the presence of another condition, such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability (ID), or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Spoken and written language are often thought to go hand in hand, so a written language disorder is often diagnosed with a spoken language disorder, or vice versa. Symptoms often vary across individuals, so signs and symptoms of one individual may be different from that of another. Symptoms are influenced by the language domains affected, age, severity, and state of linguistic development. Individualized treatment plans are implemented by a speech-language pathologist for individuals diagnosed with a language disorder.
Difficulties may occur among the various reading and writing components:
Reading decoding – the ability to transform the patterns of alphabetical letters into the phonological patterns of corresponding words. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with reading a word or letters and expressing the corresponding sounds.
Word Recognition – the ability to identify words when reading. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with identifying specific words when reading, either through processes of decoding or sight word recognition.
Reading Fluency – the ability to read words quickly, smoothly, and accurately. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with reading words accurately in a set amount of time, and the ability to quickly identify words through decoding or sight word identification.
Reading comprehension – the ability to understand written text. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with making sense of different structure and understanding vocabulary.
Writing process – the ability to plan, organize, draft, reflect on, revise, and edit written text. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle with one or more aspects of the writing process.
Written product – the end of the writing process. An individual with a written language disorder may struggle on the word, sentence, or text level.
Click here for a more comprehensive list of signs and symptoms of written language disorders from The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
Note: This is by no means a suggestion of self-diagnosis or unknowledgeable diagnosis of a child that may have a written language disorder or any other disorder or disability, and should not be used as a supplemental measure to diagnose any individual. If you believe that your child may have an written language disorder, visit a speech therapist for a professional evaluation. The information provided is strictly informational.
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